Time.news – Bhutan overtook everyone in the race and vaccinated almost 93% of adults in sixteen days. The Associated Press reported, underlining that the exceptional result is due not only to the small numbers of its population (800,000 in all), but above all to the ranks of volunteers engaged in the front row.
The first 150,000 doses of AstraZeneca they arrived from neighboring India in January, but remained locked in warehouses waiting to begin distribution on March 27, a favorable date according to Buddhist astrology. The monks advised authorities to have the first dose given by a woman to a female patient, both born in the year of the Monkey.
On March 27, at 9.30 in the morning, an auspicious time, after the recitation of prayers and lighting of lamps, the first inoculation took place in a school in the capital, Thimphu. The goal was to reach 533,000 adults in seven days, excluding pregnant women and women who had just given birth, frail people and seriously ill patients.
Within a week, nearly 470,000 received the first dose, equivalent to 85% of Bhutanese adults; sixteen days after the start, they are 93%, equal to 62% of the total population. Only Israel and the Seychelles have exceeded a similar quota, but taking much longer.
Since the beginning of the Covid epidemic, the Himalayan country has registered only 910 infections and one death; a mandatory 21-day quarantine is in place for anyone arriving while schools and educational institutions are open and monitored following a strict protocol.
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